Duke’s MFA program in Experimental and Documentary Arts partnered with the UNC Art Department and Carolina Performing Arts to bring acclaimed artists Mendi + Keith Obadike to UNC. The Obadikes will give a talk on February 7 as part of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hanes Visiting Artist Lecture Series, followed by a performance on February 9 of Four Electric Ghosts, an “opera-masquerade” that follows the afterlives of four ghosts who encounter the same mortal in their journey through the Land of the Dead, told through masquerade, dance, video interviews, and original funk, rock, and R&B music.

The artists’ work spans music, art, and literature, and has been commissioned by the New York African Film Festival and Electronic Arts Intermix, the Yale Cabaret, Whitechapel Art Gallery (London), and the Whitney Museum of Art, among other institutions. The Obadikes have a new sound installation opening in March at the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University. Keith Obadike received a BA in Art from North Carolina Central University and an MFA in Sound Design from Yale University. He is an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Communication at William Paterson University. Mendi Lewis Obadike received a Ph.D in Literature from Duke University. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at the Pratt Institute.

For more information on Mendi + Keith, visit their website: www.blacknetart.com